Historical Adventures of Emiko
by Human Customs Still Elude Me
Summary: Emiko is an up-and-coming young historian trying to uncover Team Avatar's secrets during the Hundred Years War. They're just too cryptic and frustrating to do anything with.


Emiko sighed heavily, pushing aside yet another cracked book. She ran her fingers through her hair and stared out over Republic City, the statue of Fire Lord Zuko glinting in the distance.

She groaned and dropped her head to the hotel's desk.

"Still no luck, I see," Lei said pityingly from across the room.

"None," Emiko groaned. "I travel all the way out here to read these and there's still nothing! Just the old "While The Fire Lord never said one way or another..." Blah blah blah." She stood up and started pacing, grabbing her phone from the dresser. "And then when I finally get in touch with Avatar Xian-Long she says that Avatar Korra never knew and that she has none of Aang's memories because of Vaatu!" Emiko huffed steam.

Lei stood up and gestured vaguely at the door. "How about we get some food? You're stressed and I'm hungry, so it'll be good for us."

Emiko sighed and pocketed her phone. "Fine. But I get to keep complaining."

"Whatever floats your boat, babe."

Emiko glared up at the statue of Fire Lord Zuko, fire blazing in his palm in part to burn away the snow.

"You were a cryptic bastard, you know that?"

She reread the inscription for the umpteenth time. Short, simple, and caused a massive uproar at the time. She honestly had no clue why a sentence about illusions of separation and the symbols of the four nations had caused such an uproar.

Emiko huffed smoke again at an elderly woman's stern look. She harrumphed and stared up at the statue as well.

She glanced over at her again, blue catching her eye. She was easily one hundred, with white hair partially obscured by her yellow and red robes.

Emiko smiled openly when she finally noticed the Airbender tattoos, wrinkled and faded but undeniably there.

The old woman raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Sorry. It's just really good to see Airbenders, especially masters like you."

She smiled. "You know, after the hundred years war, there was a rash of young women getting Airbender tattoos. How do you know I'm not one of them?"

"Non-benders don't usually live past a hundred."

She burst out laughing. "Hah! You're right, I'm an Airbender. I am old, though," she said thoughtfully. "Old enough that I remember Zuko decently well.

Emiko's eyes widened. "Really? Wait, what's your name?"

"Ikki. And before you ask, Grandpa Aang passed before I was born, and Jinora is the one with spirit-y powers."

"Can I ask you a different question?"

Ikki stared at the statue thoughtfully for a second. "Sure."

"Was Fire Lord Zuko the Blue Spirit?"

She snorted. "Oh, he was, alright. You just can't prove it," she said, amused. "I heard him talk about it to my grandmother once when I was very young. She was the Painted Lady, you know."

Emiko spluttered uselessly. "Wha-He-She-Huh?"

Ikki patted Emiko on the back. "Oh, the shenanigans they had are probably still going on in the afterlife."

The snow started to melt at Emiko's feet as Ikki invited her to have a rousing chat on Air Temple Island.

"I'm sixteen. I never met him."

Emiko smiled weakly. "Well, I was wondering if, since you grew up in the palace, you happened to know some things that happened?"

Prince Azuma shrugged. "I mean, grandmother talks about him sometimes. Mostly about her dad, but she likes history, so..."

"Well, what has she said?"

"Uh...He was a really good leader? Good dad, too, apparently. Strict teacher, uh..." Azuma snickered slightly. "Everyone says he was really awkward. Like worse than me."

She smiled weakly. "I don't think you're awkward, your highness.

"Thaaaanks, I know you're just saying that because I'm the heir apparent and all that."

"Well," Emiko faltered, suddenly turning a bright shade of red. "I'm just kind of...afraid of offending anyone?"

"Mood."

Emiko fell face first onto the hotel bed and groaned.

"Bad day, hun?"

"Prince Azuma is the most awkward kid I have ever met and he didn't even know anything."

Lei absently patted Emiko's back. "Who's your next interview?"

"Uh..." Emiko fished her phone out of her pocket and started flipping through notes. "Chief Senna from the Southern Water Tribe."

"Ooh. Cold. Why are you talking to her?"

Emiko shrugged. "I mean, she's Avatar Korra's granddaughter so..."

"I thought she married a woman?"

"They adopted a second cousin."

"I see." Lei leaned back against the headboard, idly flipping channels. "What have you found so far?"

"Well...Fire Lord Zuko was a cryptic bastard, his dad was real bad, he was totally the blue spirit but I have no proof so there's no point in bringing it up, and he was really awkward."

"That's a start."

"Ugh."

Emiko stared out at the spirit portal, dead center of Republic City.

"You know, they let people in sometimes."

She glanced up at her wife. "I'm not sure that the spirits know anything about Lord Zuko. If they did, it's probably just...spirity stuff about the afterlife."

Lei sat down next to her. "I mean, it's worth a shot. I'm sure Raava knows, and maybe they know what Raava knows?" She smiled and put an arm around Emiko's shoulders. "Go ahead. Spend thirty minutes on an interview, and then you've either wasted a few hours or we'll be set for life."

Emiko leaned against her. "I guess..."

"Just ask Iroh."

They both yelped and spun around.

A small yellow spirit with six limbs and leaves for ears stared at them. "Zuko isn't around much anymore, but Iroh never left."

"Uh..."

The spirit smiled. "It's okay, I'm nice. Iroh is too, you should talk to him."

Emiko nodded dumbly. "Okay, where is he?"

"In the spirit world. I can take you to him!"

"Sure!" She said weakly. "Let's... let's go!"

"Oh, he was the Blue Spirit."

Emiko found herself completely unable to respond to the kind old man. He smiled gently and poured her a cup of tea.

"He was lost, and the Blue Spirit was a product of that. As far as I know, that mask is at the bottom of Lake Laogai, and has been since before the war ended."

She stared down into her cup. "So...if I can find the mask..."

"Some things are better left buried."

Emiko stared out over Lake Laogai. It had taken three hours, even with the aid of her colleague Gao Beifong, to locate the entrance to the ruins.

Now, Gao had his eyes screwed shut, searching the bottom of the lake through his seismic sense. After what felt like hours, he opened his eyes and sat down.

"There's something buried. I can move it but it doesn't feel like a rock."

Lei took a deep breath and waterbended a part in the water. "Ready?"

Emiko nodded and followed Lei alongside Gao. The water closed over their heads, leaving them in a damp bubble. She scanned the wet sand for anything out of the ordinary as Gao grimaced at the grit now coating his feet.

After they were about thirty feet in, Gao stopped, feet turned in as his lifted pounds of sand off a seemingly random spot.

The mask was cracked badly, chips of porcelain dropping to the ground when Gao picked it up. The silk ribbons held on by a thread.

"The Blue Spirit. Iroh was right."

She stared at the mask for a second before sealing it in a plastic bag.

Emiko stared at the old photograph on her computer.

It was of Avatar Aang, roughly twenty-two, with Master Katara and Chief Sokka on either side of him. Beside Sokka was Toph Beifong and Kyoshi Warrior Suki, and beside Katara was Lord Zuko.

The war had been over for a decade, and each of them was at least five years younger than Emiko.

She sighed heavily and closed the page. Maybe she shouldn't have dug up that old mask. All it had confirmed was that a handful of ghost stories were really just a misguided sixteen-year-old that ended up becoming a world leader at the age that Emiko had been arguing her teachers about rewritten history.

He was still a cryptic bastard, though.


End file.
